Sport

Taylor sets sights on T20 World Cup, top ranking

KINGSTON, Jamaica (CMC) — West Indies star all-rounder Stafanie Taylor says winning next month’s Twenty20 World Cup in Sri Lanka and remaining the number one ranked batter in the world are now her priorities, after leading Jamaica to the capture of the Regional Women’s T20 title here Saturday.

Taylor was voted the tournament’s Most Valuable Player, after scoring 409 runs at an average of 81.80 and grabbing 13 wickets at 6.15 runs apiece.

In the final, she hammered an unbeaten 57 and then returned to take four for nine with her off-spin as Jamaica trounced archrivals Trinidad and Tobago by 16 runs.

“I want to stay on top of my game and remain the number one player in the world. That’s very important. I’m working very hard to reclaim that spot and keep it,” said the 21-year-old.

“We have a trip to England and ICC World Twenty20 coming up, so there is much for which I can look forward — making some more big scores in all of these matches.”

She added: “In this way, it would tie into our main goal of winning a World Cup. We have been working very hard over the last few years to achieve this, so it would good if we can accomplish this.

“I am going to work really hard to make sure that we achieve these goals and I am looking forward to it.”

West Indies Women are down to compete in Group B of the T20 World Cup alongside hosts Sri Lanka, New Zealand and South Africa, in the tournament that runs from September 23 to October 7.

Taylor has been at the heart of the West Indies Women success in recent outings, scoring heavily earlier this year as the regional side recorded series wins over both India and Sri Lanka in oneday and T20 series in the Caribbean.

However, she said it was important to perform in the RWT20 as many at home had never seen in her action.

“I feel very good because this is the first opportunity that many of these people have seen me play ‘live’,” she said.

“People would see me and tell me they heard about me, but they wanted to see me play, and I think this opportunity has paid off.

“I have gota large number of well wishes from people on my Facebook page and other greetings from people who walk up to me on the street or at the matches, so I am grateful for the support.”

Jamaica were restricted to a paltry 101 in the final at Sabina Park but bounced back strongly to dismiss T&T for 85.

Despite their weak performance with the bat, Taylor said her side had never stopped believing they could win.

“We had to dig deep to win the Grand Final. We were struggling a bit and we needed to do something to get a respectable total on the board,” he explained.

“In the end, we got 101 and we knew that if we could bowl as well as we have throughout the tournament, we could bowl them out, and we did just that. We put them under pressure and won easily.”

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